Artificial knee implants fitted upon the patient's femur require precise cuts of the femur bone in order to insure a proper fit and alignment of the implant. The cuts to the femur must be accurate, precise and require a skilled surgeon's expertise to properly fit a replacement knee onto the patient's femur. Current procedures rely upon multiple cutting blocks and templates for cuts to be made to the femur. These cutting blocks are pinned to the face of the femur where the cuts are to be made, and a saw is used to cut on the template for the appropriate angles and lengths. This routinely requires the surgeon to move the pins throughout the process to allow the surgeon to make all the required cuts without interference from the pins. Generally, at a minimum a surgeon will need to pin and unpin the cutting templates seven times for a single procedure. Some cutting techniques require more movement of the pins for the cuts and consequently require more pinning and unpinning of the cutting templates. This requires additional time to perform the cutting procedure while in surgery, and consequently increases time in the operating room. Other methods of producing the appropriate femoral cuts include forming a cutting jig that is custom fabricated for an individual patient's anatomy. This method requires CT or MRI imagery scans and a 3-D jig or jigs to be custom fabricated for an individual patient based upon the images. The jig is then placed around the femur to guide the surgeon in making the required femoral cuts. However, formation of a custom jig using CT or MRI data is time consuming and costly and the custom jig is not adjustable or adaptable in the operating suite based on the patient's specific needs and anatomy at the time of surgery.
Accordingly, ongoing need exists for improved techniques and tools for cutting the femur in preparation for a full or partial knee implant. Of particular need is a system that will allow the surgeon to make all of the required femoral cuts without the shuffling of cutting block pins and multiple cutting templates.